COLUMBUS – While travel volumes are expected to set new records again during the year-end holiday period, observers say an extra day might keep highways and airports from turning travelers into Scrooges.
The auto club AAA expects year-end holiday travel numbers to break records for the seventh year in a row in Ohio as more than 4 ½ million residents of the Buckeye State join the 115.6 million Americans who will travel by road or air at some time during the Christmas-to-New-Year travel period, which begins on Dec. 21 and ends on Jan. 1, AAA Ohio spokeswoman Kimberly Schwind said.
The projected travel volume is an increase of 3.9 percent nationally and 4.2 percent in Ohio and marks the 11th consecutive year of year-end holiday travel growth, Schwind said.
The growing national economy continues to fuel the growth in travel numbers.
“Unemployment at historically low levels and we’ve seen noted improvements in both disposable income and household net worth, so people have money and they’re spending it on things like travel,” Schwind said.
This year’s holiday period is also one day longer than last year, spanning 12 days instead of 11 and while the year-end holiday travel period always covers two weekends, the extra day offers more options, resulting in lighter traffic volumes during peak periods than motorists saw over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Schwind said.
Nevertheless, Schwind says the 4.28 million drivers expected to hit the highways should remember to avoid road rage and concentrate on reaching their destinations safely.
Avoid road rage:
Do Not Offend: Never cause another driver to change their speed or direction. That means not forcing another driver to use their brakes or turn the steering wheel in response to something you have done.
Be Tolerant and Forgiving.
Avoid eye contact, don’t make gestures and maintain space around your vehicle
-Source: AAA
Drivers will find that, as the national gas price average steadily declined in November, and they may see prices drop before the New Year, prices at the pump will likely be slightly more expensive than last December’s average of $2.37. The average price in Ohio on Dec. 12 was $2.60, 45 cents higher than the same day a year ago.
The auto club predicts 258,000 Ohioans are expected to fly to their destinations, an increase of 4.9 percent. Schwind says. The nearly 7 million Americans who will travel by air this year mark the highest holiday air travel volume since 2003.
An estimate released earlier in the week by Airlines for America, a trade group for most of the big U.S. airlines, predicted much heavier travel volume at the nation’s airports, though its measuring period was over a longer period of time. The group projects that 47.5 million passengers will fly in the U.S. during an 18-day stretch from Dec. 19 through Jan. 5. That would be a 3 percent increase over the same period last year.
The busiest days, according to Airlines for America, are expected to be Dec. 20 and 21 while the AAA says the busiest day will be Dec. 22, both agree the day after Christmas will also be among the busiest at airports and Christmas Day will be the least heavily traveled.